Snails, Algae eaters, gravel...

[S13DWS]

As you all know I have demasoni and am looking to breed.

I have noticed a huge growth of algae on the glass and gravel of my tank and want something to eat to keep my tank clean.

Would I be ok to use snails for gravel or do they only tend to latch onto the glass?
If I was to use an algae eating fish what would be recommended so my demasoni arent harmed or distracted in thier breeding?

My tank is really starting to take off now and the fish are getting bigger (about 1-1.5 inches)
We are also moving soon and so I will be able to get my dads tank that he is using for his turtle. It is around 140L (found gallon converter on the net came up as 36.98408733014078 gallons)


Also just a quick add: Should I not be leaving my light on 24/7. I am currently leaving it on all day and all night is this bad?

[Zerileous]

snails are good for everything. For algae eating fish, the oto cat is really the only one suitable for smaller tanks. How big is yours? Have you looked into amano shrimp? they are algae busters!

for your dads tank, you wont be able to have a plecostomous catfish, but a chinese algae eater might be ok.

light should be on 8-12 hrs a day. your 24/7 light schedule is THE BIGGEST contributor to your algae problem. Unless you have live plants cut lighting time to 8 hours. You can get timers from like wal mart, or just turn it on when you wake up and off 8 hrs later or so.

and welcome to aquatic community!

[MeganL3985]

Tanks i'm sure vary, but I leave my light on all day, shut it off when I sleep and then turn it back on when I wake up. I have no problem with algae at all. If i'm correct though, don't fish need a period without light?

[S13DWS]

snails are good for everything. For algae eating fish, the oto cat is really the only one suitable for smaller tanks. How big is yours? Have you looked into amano shrimp? they are algae busters!

for your dads tank, you wont be able to have a plecostomous catfish, but a chinese algae eater might be ok.

light should be on 8-12 hrs a day. your 24/7 light schedule is THE BIGGEST contributor to your algae problem. Unless you have live plants cut lighting time to 8 hours. You can get timers from like wal mart, or just turn it on when you wake up and off 8 hrs later or so.

and welcome to aquatic community!

I used to have a catfish it just recently died. I didnt want to put the catfish in with them because it wont be happy and the only reason i had it is because my uncle was getting annoyed with it eating all his other fish. So snails are fine, I have no plants because the roots lower the already slightly too low pH.

i will start turning my light off when i go to bed to help slow down the algae.

Thanks!

[Nick_Pavlovski]

You can also physically scrape it off the walls of the tank, and immediately do a partial water change while the water is still cloudy with the scraped algae floating around.

[S13DWS]

You can also physically scrape it off the walls of the tank, and immediately do a partial water change while the water is still cloudy with the scraped algae floating around.

Thanks this is what i have been doing :)

[freshwaterfishlover]

In my 29g I have Black alge every were. I had for about a year, 1 Snail in the tank it cleaned, but did what it could do. I just put another snail in the tank last week and already I see a much much diffrence. Get 2 snails and you will be happy.

I only once had a Pleco and it died a week later. So really do not have experience will Alge Eating fish

How about Alge eating Shrimp? again really do not know much about them since all I have are Ghost Shrimp.

[salman]

When i baught my first aquarium, i had the lights on 24/7 it also had direct sunlight and the room light was also always on. About a month after i bought it, i couldn't see any of the fish. The tank was GREEN! Then i looked it up online and 1 of the major reasons of algae is light. Keep the lights off for like a week and add some algae eaters and do a couple of water changes and the tank should be fine.